


And Oh This Too Shall Pass...This Loneliness Won't Last For Long

by emquin



Series: Endgame fics [2]
Category: Avengers: Endgame - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Endgame compliant, F/M, Gen, Grief, Post-Endgame, canon character death, endgame spoilers, not a fix it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-15 17:51:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18674557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emquin/pseuds/emquin
Summary: Endgame spoilers.In which Peter grieves...





	And Oh This Too Shall Pass...This Loneliness Won't Last For Long

**Author's Note:**

> Didn't intend to write this but then I did and I teared up and yeah. Enjoy. 
> 
> Title from Gale Song by The Lumineers
> 
> And oh this too shall pass  
> This loneliness won't last for long  
> I wasn't there to take his place  
> I was ten thousand miles away

Everyone died -- that was just the reality of Peter’s life. His parents. Uncle Ben...Tony Stark -- his mentor...his father figure...his friend? 

It all happened really fast. Too fast to comprehend in the immediate moment. 

He woke up and Mr. Stark was gone. So was the weird blue alien. But everyone else was there and Doctor Strange sort of smiled and started doing this weird hand thing and then the sparks were going around and things happened fast after that while Peter tried to figure out where Mr. Stark had gone and why he felt weird and why he couldn’t remember much of anything past Thanos disappearing -- Thanos disappearing with the stone! 

Then Doctor Strange was saying something about it being five years later...that they needed to help--

Then, he was swinging through a portal into a battle -- like a full on true to life battle like something straight out of a movie and there was no time to gather his wits because the bad guys were coming at them and Thanos was there too. 

He thought he spotted Iron Man a few times. Captain America too. He definitely saw Thor and woah was he cooler in person -- the blue lightning that he was throwing around was more impressive than anything. 

Peter tried to explain to Mr. Stark when for a small moment they were together. Mr. Stark looked shocked and shaky and he actually hugged Peter which was so so nice and everything that Peter didn’t know he needed in that moment. 

Later, Peter wished he’d held on longer. Stayed with Mr. Stark longer. Protected him. 

He thought that maybe they all felt that way. 

At least Peter got to tell him they won...even if the image of his white pale face and the dark skin on his neck and on the side of his face would be forever seared into his mind -- fodder for nightmares. 

Life kind of started back up afterwards and it was all kinds of strange. Someone explained it to him -- how Thanos won and got the stones and he and the other fifty percent of the universe was snapped out of existence for a total of five years. 

Five years in which everyone that wasn’t snapped had to keep the world moving -- had to keep living. May and Mr. Stark and Mrs. Stark -- because the wedding actually happened and Peter wasn’t there -- and Captain America and some of his classmates and some of his teachers. It was all kinds of screwed up. 

The world was a mess, too...Peter didn’t want to think about all the abandoned houses and buildings -- the things that had fallen into disrepair in five years. People were coming back to their things covered in dust or put in storage. They were coming back to a world that had been barely hanging on...and worse of all -- Tony Stark was dead. 

He was the savior -- Earth’s best defender. The hero they all needed and probably didn’t deserve. 

“He did it for you,” Mrs. Stark said. “He loved you.”

Peter just broke down into tears. His heart hurt. His body ached. He wanted to hug him again...just one more time…

Mrs. Stark -- Pepper, she wanted him to call her Pepper -- pulled him into her arms and it was something. They cried together and she smoothed his hair back and kissed his forehead. She was so so strong and Peter didn’t know how that was possible. 

It was a somber affair -- the funeral. May held his hand and she cried and cried and he cried with her. And Peter, he got to meet Morgan Stark for the first time. Well, he saw her from afar because she clung to Pepper’s side. 

She was four years old and Peter knew exactly what it felt like to be so young and to know that something terrible had happened -- that the world had changed irreparably. 

They were back at the Stark house which was more of a cabin than anything and Colonel Rhodes said something about a message. 

“He told me...well, if this happened that we should watch this.”

Mr. Stark was a hologram and he was speaking -- saying his goodbyes even as he seemed so sure that it might not be necessary and it made it easier. It made it easier to know that Tony Stark had known the risks and he’d known that he would need to say goodbye. It still hurt and cut deep. His heroism would never be forgotten -- his touch upon the world the most important ever. 

They went outside and the first of Tony’s reactors on a wreath was put out on the water to float away and it was supposed to be some sort of closure -- a true end. Tony Stark was gone. He was at rest. 

Happy introduced him to Morgan. Pepper was busy with something and May was trying to help so Peter was on his own. He’d been wandering around the yard, mingling with the others and somehow he’d ended up on the porch. 

“Hey, kid,” Happy said. 

“Hey.”

Morgan nudged Happy’s side, muttering something. 

Peter knelt down in front of her, bringing himself down to her level where she sat on the bench. “Hi, Morgan. I’m Peter.”

She looked unsure between Happy and then Peter. 

“It’s okay, kid. That’s Peter. You know, Spider-Man. I know your dad told you all about him.”

“Spider-Man,” she said, eyes wider. 

Peter choked back a gasp. “He told her about me?”

Happy smiled -- a watery smile that made Peter want to start crying again. “Of course he did. You were his kid too.”

“Oh,” Peter said. He looked back at Morgan and she was staring right at him and Peter could see Tony in her. 

She had his eyes and not just because they were brown but because there was an inquisitive curiosity there. Peter knew what it felt like to lose a parent -- he’d sort of done it three times at this point if Mr. Stark could count. And in that moment, he decided that he would always be there for Morgan for whatever she might need. He could do that. 

“Hey, Morgan,” he said, “I think we’re going to be really good friends.”

Peter would do it for Mr. Stark -- he would live and pass on everything he’d done for Peter on to Morgan. Morgan would never forget Tony Stark and neither would Peter. He would live on in both of them and in everyone else that his heart and soul had touched. Forever.

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by [this piece of art](https://ei-bi.tumblr.com/post/184517536375/endgame-got-me-sobbin) because it made me have feels about Peter meeting Morgan. 
> 
> If you liked this, come like/reblog it on [tumblr](https://inawickedlittletown.tumblr.com/post/184583149317/and-oh-this-too-shall-passthis-loneliness-wont)


End file.
